Thorens

Thorens is a name with a long and noteworthy history of Hi-Fi and audio reproduction. Starting out in Switzerland way back in 1883 building wind-up musical boxes. Then moving on to manufacture of phonographs, gramophones in early 1900’s. Then later producing the first electric gramophone motor (1928), the first electric phono pickup (1929) and first record changer (1943).

The Thorens turntables as we now know them, did not come about until 1957 with the release of the TD-124 Hi-Fi turntable, a classic idle wheeler deck, still highly sought after today. 1965 saw the release of the TD-150, with its 3 point suspended chassis, that is so common place these days. This was followed up in 1972 by the TD-160, which refined this design further and become a phenomenal success over the following decades. Even today this design is still available as the TD-160HD. Manufacture moved to Germany around 1966, where they still remain today.